Tuesday, September 7, 2010
It's The First Day of School. Don't Forget Your Pencils!
Toronto's Kalpna Patel (aka Ghostface Knittah) is the crafty gal behind The Pencil Project. This summer Kalpna asked a few poets and writers, including me, to contribute an original line of text to be engraved onto wooden pencils. Lines could be a one-line poem, an aphorism, or any kind of line that could stand alone. The only real constraint was that the line had to fit onto a pencil. The pencils will be sold at a couple of independent shops in Toronto as a fundraising endeavour to send some much-needed cash to a newly-built Elementary school in the village she's from in Gujarat, India. Kalpna had a chance to visit the school earlier this year and saw that in addition to school supplies and computers, many of the children are in need of basic things, like shoes. A few Canadian dollars go a long way in Gujarat. If you'd like to purchase a pack of pencils and help out, please contact Patel at oldweston@gmail.com